Tuesday 6 October 2015

J Gliders in the Snow

A set of photos from a vintage publication featuring glider training of the Youth Group of the Fukumitsu city, Toyama Prefecture. According to the accompanying text, training started in the middle of January 1939 with a Type Ito Model A2 glider, numbered 198 under the auspices of 2nd class glider pilot Yoshida. Three months later members of the group were able to fly four meters straight ahead and they continued their hard glider training twice a week, pledging to protect the skies of Japan with all their strength! 
 
Of interest is the Type Ito Model A2 glider of which I was not able to find even the slightest of information. The company that designed and produced the glider was Ito Hikoki Seisakujo (Ito Aircraft Factory), later becoming Nippon Kokuki Kogyo KK (Japan Aircraft Industry co. Ltd), founded and run by Ito Otojiro, one of the most important Japanese civilian aviation pioneers (check Mikesh&Abe p.107).
 



 

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